birthday cake

Pastel del cumpleaños

Information

The birthday cake emoji is the internet’s universal confetti cannon for another lap around the sun—deploy it at 12:00 a.m., alongside balloons and party poppers, and prepare for phone vibrations that rival a blender. It tags real birthdays, fake half-birthdays, pet birthdays, and Reddit cake day like a champ. People also toss it into chats for promotions, graduations, and that brave soul who survived Monday—same vibe, fewer candles. Bonus: it doubles as a wink-nudge for “cake” slang, which can make a perfectly wholesome message… not so wholesome.
On Apple/iOS, it’s a round, frosted stunner: a white top with glossy pink icing dripping photogenically down the sides, multiple striped candles standing tall with bright yellow flames, and a subtle 3D angle that screams “blow me out before the wax ruins the frosting.” The look is clean, bright, and instantly recognizable—like the idealized party cake you never actually get at the office because someone bought the driest sheet cake on Earth.
Online, it swings from heartfelt to chaotic: “HBD!!! 🎂🎉” to “another year closer to the warranty expiring, cheers 🎂.” Meme-world loves dropping it with “the cake is a lie” when promises don’t pan out, and it pops up on cheat day brag posts next to gym selfies for maximum irony. It can be a peace offering after a roast, a sarcastic pat on the back for bare-minimum effort, or a flirty nod to someone’s “cake”—you know the one. Either way, it’s sugary shorthand for celebration, drama, and a wish you’re not allowed to say out loud.

Definition

A cake is a frosted layered dessert that is baked. Cakes is traditionally served in celebration of someone's birthday. Although cakes are served at many other events, such as weddings and retirements, this particular cake includes candles, which signifies it as a birthday cake. It is tradition to place lit candles on a birthday cake, sing the "Happy Birthday" song and have the birthday person make a wish and blow out the candles. Naturally, this emoji is used most frequently when a birthday is involved.

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Emoji History The emoji code/ image log of changes.

1. This emoji was part of the proprietary / non-standardized emoji set first introduced by Japanese carriers like Softbank. These emojis became part of the Apple iPhone starting in iOS 2.2 as an unlockable feature on handsets sold in English speaking countries.
2. In iOS 5 / OSX 10.7, the underlying code that the Apple OS generates for this emoji was changed.

Emoji General Information

Twitter Emoji Popularity (Rank)	135 of 2393
Apple/iOS Picture
Google Android Picture
Google Hangouts Picture
Twitter.com Picture
LG Emoji Picture
Samsung Emoji Picture
Phantom Open Emoji Picture	Not created yet
ASCII Conversion
"Short Code" Name	:birthday:
Keywords	Birthday, Birth, Cake, Dessert, Wish, Celebrate

Unicode Category Information

Unicode Category	Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs
Unicode Range	1F300–1F5FF
Unicode Subcategory	Celebration Symbols

Editorial Comment

A white frosting birthday cake with lots of candles. It's a party!

Proposed Unicode Information & Notes

Unicode Category	Artifacts
Unicode Subcategory	Celebration Symbols
Names & Annotations	BIRTHDAY CAKE Temporary Notes: birthday
Symbol Information	U+1F382 proposed
Proposal Identifier	e-511

Character Mapping/Crosswalk Notes

DoCoMo	#73 'Birthday' バースデー 「baasudee」 U+E686 SJIS-F8E7 JIS-783F
KDDI	#313 バースデー 「baasudee」 U+E5A0 SJIS-F7BD JIS-783F
Softbank	#137 #old345 バースデーケーキ 「baasudeekeeki」 U+E34B SJIS-F9EB

Emoji Character Encoding Data

Emoji Code Version	iOS 4 Code
UTF-8 Unicode Character(s)	
UTF-8 Character Count	1
Character(s) In Input
AppleColorEmoji Font (available in OSX/iOS)	
Decimal HTML Entity	
Hexadecimal HTML Entity	
Hex Code Point(s)	e34b
Formal Unicode Notation	U+E34B
Decimal Code Point(s)	58187
UTF-8 Hex (C Syntax)	0xEE 0x8D 0x8B
UTF-8 Hex Bytes	EE 8D 8B
UTF-8 Octal Bytes	356 215 213
UTF-16 Hex (C Syntax)	0xE34B
UTF-16 Hex	e34b
UTF-16 Dec	58187
UTF-32 Hex (C Syntax)	0x0000E34B
UTF-32 Hex	E34B
UTF-32 Dec	58187
Python Src	u"\uE34B"
PHP Src	"\xee\x8d\x8b"
C/C++/Java Src	"\uE34B"

Emoji Code Version	iOS 5 - Current
UTF-8 Unicode Character(s)	🎂
UTF-8 Character Count	1
Character(s) In Input
AppleColorEmoji Font (available in OSX/iOS)	🎂
Decimal HTML Entity	🎂
Hexadecimal HTML Entity	🎂
Hex Code Point(s)	1f382
Formal Unicode Notation	U+1F382
Decimal Code Point(s)	127874
UTF-8 Hex (C Syntax)	0xF0 0x9F 0x8E 0x82
UTF-8 Hex Bytes	F0 9F 8E 82
UTF-8 Octal Bytes	360 237 216 202
UTF-16 Hex (C Syntax)	0xD83C 0xDF82
UTF-16 Hex	d83cdf82
UTF-16 Dec	55356 57218
UTF-32 Hex (C Syntax)	0x0001F382
UTF-32 Hex	01F382
UTF-32 Dec	127874
Python Src	u"\U0001F382"
PHP Src	"\xf0\x9f\x8e\x82"
C/C++/Java Src	"\uD83C\uDF82"

Emoji Character Encoding Data (equivalent or similiar)